One of my family members is driving around town in a car with a slow leak in his front right tire. The tire has been leaking for several weeks, and most mornings he has to put air in it before going to work. To make matters worse, he uses a bicycle pump on his car tire. Yes, you read correctly. After watching him pump away and sweat for a few days, I suggested that he just get the tire fixed. He mumbled something about not having much time but acknowledged that is a good idea. To date, he’s still pumping!

It’s amazing how many things we put off fixing while spending twice the effort propping them up.

I fear that education is our troubled tire in Montgomery. It started as a slow leak but now the threads are separating.

We already know that education is the key to progress. Perhaps we have heard Nelson Mandela’s quote, “Education is the most powerful weapon which we can use to change the world.”

Or maybe you have heard the Prophet Hosea’s rebuke to Israel, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you…” (Hosea 4:6 NKJV). The word destroyed is translated from the Hebrew word damah pronounced. /daw·mam/. It means to cease or cause to cease; to destroy or be destroyed.

I keep hearing this verse as it relates to our educational situation. I am concerned that if we don’t fix education, we will suffer rejection and destruction.

God won’t reject us, but new industry and commerce will. Prowess and progress will elude us. Opportunity will escape our grasp and find other cities more academically prepared. As the saying goes, “He who has, more will be given.”

A casual search will reveal that higher educational achievement among individuals results in higher incomes and lower unemployment rates. More education results in a higher quality of life. In communities, economic growth and development are directly proportional to educational attainment. Municipalities that sow heavily into education, reap greater social benefits. There is usually more unity and trust.

It’s not enough to know we have a problem…we need to fix it.

While the educational problems we face are not an easy quick fix. There are some things each of us can do that will make a difference. I call for a 3-P approach to personal involvement in the educational dilemma we face.

1. Participation

Let’s personally get involved in our local schools. Our teachers and administrators are faced with daunting tasks to educate and train our children. We have to help them. It still takes a village to raise a child. Stop by and ask questions. Find out if supplies are needed that can be donated. See if volunteer help is welcomed. Consider mentoring a child or two. We will never know what a gift card or even a mere letter of encouragement, if that all we can do, might do for a discouraged teacher. Perhaps it’s PTA involvement. There is an “on ramp” somewhere for each of us. Let’s do what we can. We eat an elephant one bite at a time and each bite is needed.

2. Pressure

Politics, like most things, is involved in our educational system. There are some things we cannot personally do since elected officials make most of the decisions. But elected officials do respond to pressure and numbers. There is an old Cherokee saying, “If you listen to the whispers, you will not hear the screams.” Since our whispers have not been heard, let’s turn up the volume. I do not advocate literal screaming at our elected officials, but we need to make sure we scream in the voting booth on June 5th when we have an opportunity to vote for school board members. Interview those running for office and influence your circle of influence to join in making a difference.

3. Prayer

Before you let your eyes roll, let me remind you that prayer does change things. I remember during the Continental Congress, when our nation was in danger of never being formed due to disunity and chaos. Benjamin Franklin advised,

“I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth- that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?…I therefore beg leave to move-that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations…”

From that point on, things shifted and the constitution was formed. If prayer helped shift the tide in the forming of our nation, it can certainly help repair our failing educational tire.

I ask that churches and individuals everywhere make it a point to regularly pray about our educational system. If we do, God will hear and help us.

It is really up to us. We can continue to pump air into a failing system, or we can make radical changes. If we don’t do the latter, I fear things will implode. And then what?